Hello, everyone/webmasters/bloggers/etc.
I'd like to share a thought on something crucial to those who plan to make money online via their websites, either its an e-commerce website or a blog.

I have come up with 10 Things to consider.
When you decide to take a bold step into the cloud.

1. SOLVING AN UNIMPORTANT PROBLEM

If the problem your business solves is
important enough, you won’t even have to
look for customers. Imagine if you had a
cure for hiv, for example.
Businesses fail all the time because they
try to solve a problem nobody really cares
about. If you put your product or idea out
there and nobody buys it, there’s a good
chance you should look for a more important problem, not a bigger audience.

2. LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS
How do you know if the problem you solve is important enough?
Listen to your customers. Really
listen to them as well interact with them.!!
Don’t just listen to the customers who
provide validation. Listen to the ones who
ask for refunds or buy your product but
don’t use it. Listen to the people who tell you they won’t buy, and find out why.Listen to the ones who "critises, but with a solid point".
Don’t just pay lip service to your
customers. You don’t have all the answers,
THEY DO. There’s a reason why
“the customer is always right,”
because without customers you don’t have a business.

3. BE DIFFERENT
In most markets, customers have different
options to choose from. If your business
has competition, you have to give your
potential customers a reason to choose your offering over another.
I see this all the time with new bloggers, you all know this too.
They jump into a popular topic and
ESSENTIALLY MIMIC or COPY WORD FOR WORD what other popular bloggers are already doing. Sometimes I wonder what they think “if it works for them, maybe it will work for me.”
There are about or more than 6million nigerian blogs out there(some not functioning anymore).
You Should think about it from the reader or customer perspective. If they find your
blog, they’ll be asking themselves “why is
this blog worth spending any time on?” You
have to answer that question quickly and
clearly, before they click the back button.
You can’t expect to grow an visitors by
being an INFERIOR VERSION(copy copy version) of some other better known site. Even if your site or product is arguably better than the competition, “better” is subjective.
Instead of SIMPLY TRYING TO BE BETTER,
YOU NEED TO BE DIFFERENT. Then, when
someone asks why your site or product is
worth her attention, your answer will be
objective and easy to understand.

4. CHOOSING A TOPIC OR AREA OF SPECIALTY YOU CARE ABOUT
Whatever you choose to focus your business
on, you’re going to need deep subject KNOWLEDGE, fresh CREATIVITY, and unwavering STAMINA.

There will be competition who cares more
about the topic/specialisation than you do. How can you compete if the gap between your love of a topic/specialisation and your competitors’ is wide?
This doesn’t mean your business has to be
your #1 “passion” or life’s work (most of
people don’t have one single passion in life), but don’t make things impossible by
choosing something you don’t care about.
If you love your topic/specialisation, stamina won’t be an issue. If you love your topic, creativity will flow, and influence will be easier to build.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive
and then go do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -Howard Thurman

5. START WITH VASTLY RIGHT EXPECTATIONS
This won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick.
Building a successful business is a massive undertaking. You probably can’t do it while traveling the world. If you have a full-time job or a student with little spare time, it will be much, much harder.
If you don't have much time for what your planning on doing, that work might fail.
These are the hard truths that people
rarely talk about. Overnight successes
don’t exist. Your original plan will
probably have to be completely re-written,
maybe multiple times.
Ask yourself: will building this business
still be worth it if it takes years to get
there? What if building the business is
harder and more stressful than your current job?
Talk to some entrepreneurs or someone sensible with wide thinking scope who may have achieved something close to what you want to achieve. Ask them what it really took.
Ask them about stress and timelines and
giving up. Ask them not to sugarcoat it.
Really listen. Then ask yourself if
you’re prepared for your own version
of that.

6. DO NOT THINK WITHOUT ACTING
Not much to say here that isn’t perfectly
summed up in this quote:

"Genius is one percent inspiration,
ninety-nine percent perspiration."
-Thomas Edison

If your ratio of thinking-to-doing is
anything less than 80% doing, think again
do more.

As Chase of fizzle.co says, entrepreneurs have two modes, CEO mode and worker-bee mode. In a one-person business, you have to be both.
Do not spend most of the time thinking of what to implement having dreams, that this would be a good idea,and all you do is sit down and plan with your mouth or head.
Take action!, draw plans out, strategise, think outside the box, if possible create a box outside the box and think outside it.

7. HAVE YOUR PEOPLE AROUND
This is for those that plan to create something bigger than just a blog, sites like or shayo.com.
No one can succeed in business alone. You
need people to make it work. Your customers are people, your suppliers are people, your service providers are people.
Most importantly, you need support from
other entrepreneurs who are at similar
stages as you are, and from others with
more experience.
The more connected you become with other
entrepreneurs, the more normal your quest
becomes. Share your struggles and goals, and review your progress each week. This simple process is so powerful.


8. DO NOT CONFUSE A “blog” WITH “business”
Repeat this: a blog isn’t a business. A blog no be business.
A blog is a beautiful platform for
sharing your ideas, connecting with people
and growing an audience. The same is true
of YouTubing, or any other place you might publish content for FREE.
Giving away free content isn’t a business. It’s a tool for building influence. Don’t count on turning that influence into SPONSORSHIPS or ADVERTISING for Naira. You’ll need a more direct plan for earning an income if you want your blog or to pay off.
That where the idea of advertising/publicising your blog or business to get visitors comes in(watch out for a content on this).


9. KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS.
70% of nigerian that own websites for business or having blogs, have the same category of content on the site.
This then creates room for visitors to pick favourites.
Looking at #2 where it says be different.
If you are different a visitor will always visit your website to know what new content or item you have.

Like now.. Lindaikeji handles entertainment, ogbongeblog handles tech issues, jarushub handles career talks.

People would always visit their sites because they have different contents.

Now NOTE: For those in the same category like entertaiment(for bloggers) or sales(for e-commerce websites), you now have to learn to advertise your products to the public, uniquely and attractively.


10. What would you add to this list?
This is my list with extracts from fizzle.co, from what I hear and see
in the entrepreneurial world.
Is your idea different?
What mistakes do you see new entrepreneurs making?
Please share your thoughts.
You might just help someone avoid a big mistake. If you think this list is helpful, please pass it along!
ThankYou For Reading!

let me also add that you should know your target. some people are confused on who their end users are